Happy Easter 2012

Decoration Day (literally)!

We spent the afternoon/evening on the day before Easter baking and decorating 2 dozen cutout cookies and 2 dozen eggs!

A thorough job...in 90 seconds!

Emma attended the Easter Egg hunt at our church this past Saturday, the day before Easter. As our Pastor pointed out, it took hours to fill the eggs, 45 minutes to hide them, and, in 90 seconds, the kids had picked the yard clean!

Easter-Victorian Style!

Tonight, Monday April 2, we attended what has become a holiday tradition...a trip to the local Victorian house, which is now decorated for Easter. The kids were invited to "parade" through the house wearing their best Easter hats. Some were silly, many were creative, but Emma stuck with simple elegance...the same bonnet she'd worn last year, but with her new dress from Grandma Karen. She enjoyed art projects, collecting candy, and seeing the new decorations. However, her favorite activity seemed to be showing affection to the volunteers (mostly senior citizens) by giving them hugs and blowing them kisses. Could this be the reason her treat bag seemed to be the fullest one?!

Playin' in Pittsburgh!

On Thursday and Friday, March 29 and 30, Todd, Emma and I went to Pittsburgh. Emma and I both were on Spring Break this week, so we wanted to get out of town. Todd and I had visited the city before Emma was born, and we thought she'd enjoy it...especially since it has several hands-on museums. With our pass to our local science museum, we were able to visit the Carnegie Science Center and the Pittsburgh Childrens' Museum. Among Emma's favorite activities at the science center were rocket launching, the train display, the aquarium, and the young childrens' area, and the sports complex (where she can be seen bungee jumping on a trampoline). The Childrens' Museum included an art studio, 2-story climbing maze, wheel exhibit (with a race track to test out all kinds of riding toys), and a puppet theater modeled after Mr. Rogers'. There were several authentic things on display from the show, including the puppets, although I'm sad to admit that this meant more to Todd and I than it did to Emma, as the show only airs the occasional rerun now (and I didn't have the foresight to DVR any shows to watch before we went)! Either way, we had a great, albeit whirlwind, trip, and it was a nice little get-away!